I remember visiting Kennedy Space Center as a kid. They had a moon landing scene set up, with a space suit you could stick your head through and have your picture taken. Mine came out so red-eyed I looked like I was there to take over your puny Earth by stealing the space travel garments of one of your feeble human Astro-naughts. I wonder if Mom still has any of those pictures.posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:18 AM on September 4, 2013 [1 favorite]

Space suites need to be designed and built, take a beat, in space. Would you wear a scuba outfit designed in the middle of the Sahara?

Hopefully between the Space X's and the rich guys trying to harvest the asteroid belt we'll get beyond the big science (congressional back scratching) approach and get a long term presence of engineers and workers to build what's really needed to live and work (and hang out and have games and dances and cool stuff).posted by sammyo at 9:20 AM on September 4, 2013

We (er.. they) really need to figure out really efficient airlocks that don't take many minutes to cycle.posted by sammyo at 9:26 AM on September 4, 2013

And on a re-read of the link I posted above, why isn't there redundancy in communication? A keypad? Planned hand signals? Seems like if there had been a worse emergency that cut off his voice he'd have had no way to let his crew mates know.posted by sammyo at 9:36 AM on September 4, 2013

Why are there seven hour space walks? Is it that hard to come inside for lunch?posted by sammyo at 9:37 AM on September 4, 2013

sammyo: "Why are there seven hour space walks? Is it that hard to come inside for lunch?"

It takes a little under an hour to get into the suit and checked, and once you're in you need to get used to the pure oxygen and low pressure before being allowed outside, which takes another hour.

From what I've read, working outside in the suit is extremely hard and frustrating work, a job which might take you ten minutes on Earth can take hours, because of your lack of feel, limited motion and of course the joys of zero gravity.posted by Static Vagabond at 10:44 AM on September 4, 2013

At least some of those images were taken by a colleague of mine, who is credited on only one image and whose initals are still in one of the others (which is credited only to Mark Avino), and of whom I'm feeling a bit fiercely defensive just now - Ron (Roland H.) Cunningham.

We (er.. they) really need to figure out really efficient airlocks that don't take many minutes to cycle.

I'm sure everyone, especially the astronauts, would love for the airlock cycling to take only seconds. But it's probably just not feasible from an engineering and cost standpoint.

why isn't there redundancy in communication? A keypad? Planned hand signals? Seems like if there had been a worse emergency that cut off his voice he'd have had no way to let his crew mates know.

The astronauts are in constant communication with Mission Control while outside, so if voice communications dropped, it would quickly be noticeable. As to hand signals, there probably are simple ones. Luca was able to communicate that he was ok by using the universal A-ok or thumbs up sign, I forget which he specifically used. Not sure a keypad would have helped him, as he would have had to move his head to see the keys.

Why are there seven hour space walks? Is it that hard to come inside for lunch?

Because it can take that long to get the task done. Seriously, EVAs are tough and astronauts or cosmonauts have to move slowly and carefully, in order to make sure things get safely done.

Also, for the NASA suits (called EMU), the astronauts need to prebreathe pure nitrogren for 12 hours before fully putting on the suit. They usually wind up sleeping in the airlock. Factoring in that, plus the long time to get in and out of an EMU, then yeah, the astronauts can definitely be out there for a while.

Why does't NASA design a suit more like the functionality of the Orlan, which has a lower prebreathe time? Because the difference in the internal suit pressures puts different functionality on the suits. For the EMU, it's 4.3 pounds per inch (psi(, while the Orlan is 5.8 psi. The higher pressure of the Orlan makes it harder to move in. So the EMU takes longer to get into (they can cut the time from 12 to 4 hours if they pre breathe in the suit), but is ultimately more flexible, which is definitely useful for work outside. Like everything, there are tradeoffs.posted by Brandon Blatcher at 3:36 PM on September 4, 2013

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